


then don't

by leatherandlace



Category: Scandal (TV)
Genre: F/F, shonda inspired me, something tiny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-25
Updated: 2017-04-25
Packaged: 2018-10-23 17:38:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10724052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leatherandlace/pseuds/leatherandlace
Summary: Set directly after 6x11--Mellie and Olivia carefully mend the broken pieces of a campaign (and the memory of Elizabeth North) over a bottle of hooch (and regret).





	then don't

**Author's Note:**

> I know this isn't anything much, but I was hit with a little inspiration to write after this last episode. Poor Mellie :/ Hope this isn't too much of a let down for the grossly neglected Melllivia tag/fandom. Enjoy!

According to Jake, Mellie wasn't really mentally coping, struggling with Sarah’s gold putter extravaganza in her office. Upon Olivia’s orders, Jake had brought Mellie to her apartment, and she refused to leave, even when Jake offered to buy her food or bring her somewhere, anywhere. It was there Olivia found her (as she came home from her most recent Fitz-related sexual mistake), staring into Olivia’s living room mirror and clutching a mason jar full of all too familiar hooch.

    

 

“Hi.” Olivia whispered as she shut the door behind her, overwhelmed with the waves of emotion clouding her mind as well as the waves of anxiety and alcohol radiating off of Mellie. Mellie didn't respond, at least not at first.

    

 

(They were by no means on good terms--the only reason Mellie was here was because Olivia knew just how shaken up she'd be. She was still furious that Mellie had been campaigning so hard against Cyrus, against _her,_ especially after all that had happened. It genuinely hurt to be betrayed by Mellie like that, but it hurt even more to remember the blood speckled on Mellie’s face, the shock and horror in her eyes, and Olivia knew that no amount of anger would drive her to leave Mellie alone at a time like this.

    

 

Besides, she couldn't stay angry with Mellie for too long. Not after everything.)

    

 

“I'm President of the United States of America,” Mellie whispered, half to herself and half to Olivia, “I never dreamed it would be like this.”

    

 

When Mellie imagined the moments after being elected, they all included smiles, tears of joy, hugging Olivia and ‘we did it, Liv,’ a peck on the cheek, linking fingers, a swell of the chest because _god dammit_ she proved everyone wrong, she made her place as Mellie Grant but without the Grant that kept her tied to a metaphorical metal pole.

    

 

What she did not imagine, never in her wildest dreams-- _nightmares_ \--was being elected in a shroud of sadness and fear, feeling the ghost of the sticky sheen of blood from her murdered Chief of Staff still plastered onto her skin, wondering if it was really worth it to get into politics, if the cons had outweighed the pros long ago. And she never thought that Olivia would be so distant, so cold, so defeated because Mellie was in the White House once again.

    

 

Where was that dream of an election?

    

 

Olivia slowly made her way to Mellie, joining her in her pensive staring of the mirror in front them. Mellie laid the hooch in Olivia’s outstretched hand, and was about to turn away when she saw the hint of sweat in her hairline, the faraway look in those brown eyes of hers, and all she could see was that _same_ look on a Fitz when he emerged from a closet or empty room ‘by himself.’

    

 

“Did you just sleep with my ex-husband?” Mellie asked, knowing the answer but needing confirmation.

      

 

Olivia nodded, “It was a mistake.” The raw regret in her voice distinguished any reprimands Mellie was ready to unload onto her.

    

 

“Okay,” was all she said, and they continued to stare at the mirror. Mellie tried to disassemble the glass with her mind, pretending to watch shards of glass shower the floor with retractions of her nose, of her eyes, her frown, the presidential qualities or a not-so-presidential-president. How ironic.

    

 

“I don't want to say congratulations.” The air felt thick in Olivia’s throat as she spoke.

    

 

“Then don't.”

    

 

Olivia's eyes seemed to burn with tears. Things were always like this with Mellie, tense and waiting, as if every molecule in the air was holding its breath. The hair on the back of Mellie’s neck stood up as Olivia slid their hands together despite herself, wanting the press of Mellie’s palm against her, the waved knuckle intertwined within hers. “Mellie, I don't want to fight anymore.”

    

 

Mellie’s voice shuddered, taking her unoccupied hand and clutching her forehead. “Then don't.”

    

 

The thing was that Mellie was _everything._ When the air was frigid, it whipped Mellie’s hair in different ways, and the muted sun reflected gray off strands of auburn. When the air leaked sun, the highlights of her hair shone like spun gold, and freckles sprouted like spring flowers of the apples of her cheeks. Olivia was enraptured with everything Mellie, everything to do with that curve of her hips, the arch of her back when she turned around to see if Olivia was still following her, everything to do with the tentative smile, pulled by the strings of Olivia’s words, the complex beauty of her eyes that had started into horror but came back looking like _that_.

           

 

Mellie was _everything_ , so what was life without her?

 

 

Olivia laid the hooch down on the nearest end table and wrapped the woman in front of her in a crushing hug, trying to memorize all the curves and dips and crests that she forgot the feeling of these past weeks. She ran her hands up down the nubs of Mellie’s spine, along the ribbed zipper of her dress, and Mellie just _cried_ into her shoulder.

    

 

They stood like that for what seemed like hours, wrapped up in the hurricane of their wild breath and the cacophony of their beating hearts.

**Author's Note:**

> Right now, other than this, I'm writing a long one shot for Foxxay (for those of you who don't know, Misty Day and Cordelia Foxx from AHS: Coven). I've been majorly busy writing that, and also getting by in school and maintaining some semblance of a social life, so that's why I haven't updated much. Once this one shot is done, I have many plans for Mellie and Olivia. If anyone cares, stay in tune! xoxox.


End file.
